Bush

ClientMichaelLocationAgnes WaterCategory Rural

Area m² 150

Year Completed 2005

Photographer David Sandison

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Blending into a Melaleuca Wallum site on Queensland’s Discovery Coast, the timber screened ‘Bahama’ room is the heart of the ‘Bush House’ and provides a direct and rich experience of the coastal landscape, more refuge, but as evocative and visceral as bush camping.

When it came to designing our own studio it was clear for us to create a modest but flexible space that balanced working with living, that by design manifests Bark’s unique approach and philosophy as an architectural practice. Standing today as an elevated modernist steel and glass pavilion in the glorious Noosa Hinterland, the Bark Studio does exactly this – espousing Bark’s commitment to producing innovative, site-sensitive and climate responsive spaces for life, work and leisure.

Perched on only four steel footings in order to slot between two mature Australian Eucalypts, the modular 20 metre long structure of steel portal frames is encased with adjustable and fixed glazing on three sides, is layered with operable blinds and frames broad views of the Pacific coastline. The fourth façade, a plywood-clad box, provides privacy, protection from the western sun and a desired ambiguity of the building’s perceived use.

Conceived as an open verandah, the main linear workspace facilitates an experimental studio environment that fosters the inspiration and collaboration of our medium sized team, as well as the dynamic between Bark and its clients when they are visiting the space. Parallel to this linear workspace are compact service spaces ‘plugged in’ along its length. These spaces include a kitchen, bathrooms, workspaces and storage zones connected by vertical circulation.

From the main studio platform, folded plywood stairs ascend past the large ‘shopfront’ window box, displaying models of past and current projects to a mezzanine level which contains spaces for our architecture library, a nook for quiet reading and an additional bathroom. The spatial connection from the mezzanine to the main platform serves to ventilate the work spaces below whilst the visual connection presents a cropped horizontal framing of the hinterland and coastal horizon beyond.